FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION: What is the Forum policy about quoting?


RESPONSE: There is no rule against using quotes.  The policy is about
excessive quoting.  Often when people reply to a message they quote
extracts from the message to which they are replying.  If it is a very
short message, then the quoted extract might be most of the message.  But,
if they are replying to a long message, then they should edit and minimize
the quoted parts.  They should almost always prune away the original
message taglines.

Sometimes people try to reply to a message found in a digest and in doing
so they quote the entire digest in their reply.  This is very wasteful and
annoying.  They should take the time to edit and quote only the small
portion relevant to their reply.  Often when they quote an entire digest
their message is rejected automatically and is forwarded only to the Forum
Manager as a "failed" message.

Sometimes people decide to quote entire messages by forwarding them to the
forum.  This can be annoying.  Often when they forward messages, the
message header information is converted to text and shown in the body of
the message.  That causes the Internet Address and routing information of
the original writer to be displayed in the message archives.  The original
writer may object to having their messages forwarded without their prior
knowledge or permission.

  * Quoting increases the storage space needed for archives.

  * Excessive quoting isn't necessary.

  * Excessive quoting increases the workload on the mail servers.

  * Excessive quoting increases the download time and slows the mail.

  * Excessive quoting can be frustrating and confusing to the reader.

  * Forwarding can cause complaints from the original writer.

The Forum Policy about quoting reads as follows:

"Don't quote excessively. Most email programs automatically quote the whole
message when you reply. In an archived Forum this is wasteful and can be
confusing. Quote the relevant portions only. Delete extraneous material.
Excess quoting is annoying."




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